Prelude
by Yotsubadancesintherain5
Summary: Mona: the Gallery Witch. Its tears fall like the petals of a rose. This Witch weeps for someone it lost long ago.
1. Coal

It was almost too easy, and the payoff that would happen would have made Kyubey dance if he could experience excitement. He found this girl by a grand painting, the frame gold and the colors smeared in such a way that these humans would nod and hum and say something vague and pretentious. Kyubey had no need for those kinds of humans; just this, a girl who was hunched up and crying, looking so small.

The girl called herself Ib, though Kyubey wouldn't remember it if his plan went through, and she did not ask questions about what Kyubey was. Perhaps she was too consumed by grief to do so. Kyubey asked her what was wrong, and got an answer that was fantastical. Painted girls were not known to steal roses and pluck petals from them, nor did humans die alone surrounded by said petals but Kyubey did not have such capacity for emotion to show shock on his face. He gave a fantastical option in return; that she could bring back the person she had lost if she contracted with him and became a magical girl.

She hesitated for a few seconds and then stood tall and stated her wish: that this lost friend would be brought back from the painted world.

It was done, Kyubey could see another human slumped against the wall, and the girl holding her Soul Gem, the red within already swirling with murky darkness. She went to the human, spoke his name, shook his shoulder a little. Kyubey thought it a pity that she didn't think to ask him to come back alive.

It was the final nail, and the Soul Gem cracked open and the Witch made itself known in this gallery. Runes ghosted by, calling this Witch Mona, and familiars began to chase the screaming patrons captured in this barrier. Dozens of a type of familiar - the Rooted Soldier - gathered by the Witch, protecting it, and smelled faintly of lemons. The other type - the Stitched Maiden - giggled and danced all over itself, exiting the barrier to find more humans. It would do everything in its power to keep the Witch alive, and a few strays tried to fight some of the Rooted Soldiers. The barrier was covered with hellish paintings, dolls hung by their necks, and the Witch was a withered rose, petals falling from its white eyes like tears.

Soon, a group of magical girls would dispatch this Witch and the humans would write this off as accidental death, as humans were expected to do. To Kyubey this was the natural order of things.


	2. Diamond

When Ib had finally escaped from that painted world she barely had time to catch her breath before she was accosted by a strange creature. Anybody could have seen that she was distressed by something, so much so that she didn't even question who or what this creature was.

She remembered it, because there was a lighter in her pocket that was engraved with his name and it was hard to get the image of him slumped against the wall out of her mind. And when this creature offered her a wish in exchange for a contract her heart jumped into her throat.

Before Ib could answer that she wished that Garry could be here, out of the painted world, she heard a word brush against her ear. The voice made her shiver just a little, like a ghost had just been there, but she decided it was best to specify that he was to be brought back alive.

With a flash of light it was done and Ib, holding her Soul Gem in her hand, found him admiring one of the paintings. He did not remember but thanked her for returning his lighter when she presented it to him. Ib found that she couldn't stand it and hurriedly walked away.

She got her composure back when she was at the other end of the gallery and she traced over her Soul Gem. Even if he couldn't remember her it was enough that he was alive, and Ib vowed then to save anybody else in distress.

**A/N: Originally posted on AO3 on July 11 2017**

**I still stick by my headcanon that Madoka as Madokami would give out hints and advice in secret so that the girls wouldn't succumb to despair easily.**


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